Dwight Yokam - Courtesy of Moca

La salsa man - Courtesy of Moca

Coca cola sign - Courtesy of Moca

After the fall - Courtesy of Moca

Mobile man - Courtesy of Moca

It is a sunny, calm, somber day in downtown LA, where art
lovers, friends and collegues had gathered to honor one of their
own.

Thanks to Moca's Lyn Winter and Jessica Youn, Vogue was invited to the opening party. We
can spot actors, producers, hotelliers and gallery owners among the
many.

"Dennis Hopper was my friend. Everybody
knew his love for the Arts. We all knew he loved to take photos and
to sculpt, but very few knew what he really had collected over the
years and along his travels. This is not a simple exhibition, this
is a portrait of Dennis, his life, his passions, the rich, fertile
and freethinking adventure of a longtime friend and genius, and as
I known him, a really curious guy who was self-educated, who's
instincts were always on the edge, believe me": these are
Julian Schnabel's words at the PConference opening
of Dennis Hopper Double Standard, - July
11 - a retrospective of more than 200 paintings,
photographs and somewhat large-scale installations most of which
date to the early 1960 - showing at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary in Los
Angeles trough September 26 to showcase the
remarkable body of work Hopper produced in a formidable career
spanning more than 50 years.

Hopper helped plan the show before he died from prostate cancer on
May 29 side by side with his longtime friend, aritst-director
Julian Schnabel, who attended with his own son and
with Henry Hopper, son of the late Dennis.

Born in Kansas, Dennis Hopper was an important
figure of the late 20th century art world, a creator, collaborator
and avid collector who helped to form the foundation of the Pop Art movement.

As an actor living in Los Angeles most of his life, Hopper
connected with the most important artists of the new american
culture, taking pop-cultural film and art as insipiration and his
photographs are a testament to a man who lived through one of the
most vital eras in American history.

"I thought that Dennis was actually going to be here with us
when we did this," says Schnabel, first time official museum
curator, "he always told me: Acting was one way to express myself,
and I loved acting, but it wasn't always in my control whether I
could perform or not. Making art became a way of creating something
that I could always control."